This invention relates to an electronic photographing method in which an electronic photographic photosensitive plate is subjected to the steps of charging, exposing, developing, transferring and cleaning, to continuously obtain a number of copies.
If an electronic photographing photosensitive plate employed in an electronic photographing method of this type is continuously and repeatedly used, it becomes fatigued and its charging potential becomes relatively low. However, if the plate is not used for a long time between photocopying cycles, its charging potential during the first of the photocopying cycles will be greater than the potential for the rest of the photocopying cycles.
FIG. 1 shows an example of this variation in initial charging potential for such an electronic photographing photosensitive plate. In FIG. 1, the horizontal axis indicates the frequency of use of an electronic photographing photosensitive plate, i.e., the number of continuous copying operations completed on the plate. The vertical axis indicates the charging potential of the plate. In FIG. 1, curve A shows the variation in charging potential for the case when a continuous copying operation is started after a relatively long inactive period. The curve B of FIG. 1 shows the variation in charging potential for the case when the continuous copying operation is started after a relatively short inactive period. As is apparent from these curves, when continuous copying is carried out after the use of the electronic photographing photosensitive plate has been stopped or delayed for any period of time, the first copy is different in density (i.e., it is darker) than those copies printed immediately following. This phenomenon is also caused by the rise in charging potential of the electronic photographing photosensitive plate due to a reduction in the intensity of the erase lamp of the photocopying machine.